26/11 Mumbai attacks

The 2008 Mumbai attacks, colloquially known as 26/11, were a coordinated series of twelve Islamic terrorist attacks carried out in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, from 26 to 29 November 2008, by ten members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. A total of 175 people died, including 166 civilians and nine of the attackers, and more than 300 people were injured.

The attackers arrived in Mumbai via the Arabian Sea. They had departed from Karachi on a Pakistani cargo vessel, hijacked an Indian fishing trawler on the way, and ended their journey to South Mumbai's coastline on inflatable boats. Eight of the attacks were mass shootings in South Mumbai at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Trident Hotel, Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, Nariman House, Metro Big Cinemas, and in a lane behind St. Xavier's College and the headquarters of The Times of India. In addition to the mass shootings, an explosion occurred at Mazagaon, in Mumbai's port area, and in a taxi at Vile Parle. By the early morning of 28 November, all sites except for the Taj Hotel had been secured by the Mumbai Police and security forces. On 29 November, India's National Security Guards conducted Operation Black Tornado to flush out the remaining terrorists; it culminated in the death of the last remaining terrorists at the Taj Hotel and ended the attacks.

Before his execution in 2012, Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving attacker captured by the Mumbai Police, stated and confessed that the terrorists were members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and were controlled from Pakistan, corroborating initial claims from the Indian government. Although initially denying the claims, Pakistan later confirmed that the sole surviving perpetrator of the attacks was a Pakistani citizen. The subsequent capture and interrogation of David Headley, a Pakistani-American DEA informer, and Tahawwur Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin and a former Pakistan Army captain, who was Headley's partner, pointed to the involvement of rogue officials from Pakistan's army and its Inter-Services Intelligence agency, who provided support to Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attacks. The capture of Zabiuddin Ansari aka Abu Hamza in July 2012, an Indian national radicalised by Lashkar-e-Taiba, provided further clarity to the plot.

On 9 April 2015, the foremost suspected ringleader of the attacks, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, was released on bail in Pakistan and disappeared. He evaded capture for years, until being arrested again in Lahore on 2 January 2021. In 2018, former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif questioned the Pakistani government's allowing men who had committed the attacks to cross into India. In 2022, one of the masterminds of the attack, Sajid Mir — who the Pakistani government had earlier said was dead — was convicted for funding terrorist activities by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Consequently, several masterminds such as Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi were convicted for terror financing in 2021–22, as Pakistan went into an economic crisis after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) threatened the government of Pakistan to be put in the FATF Blacklist for failure to comply on money laundering and financing of terrorism.

Known as one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Mumbai and across India, the 2008 attacks caused property damage worth US$18.5 million through fire, grenade attacks, and gunfire; although the human casualties were lower than in the 2006 Mumbai train bombings, the attacks had a significant impact on the city's infrastructure and security measures. Economic losses arose from insurance claims and business disruption. The attacks strained diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan, and made a huge impact on law enforcement and security officials to deal with such scenarios in the future. The attacks also caused a major political impact on the then ruling government led by the United Progressive Alliance, as the same year, several other cities suffered from Islamic terrorism, which were also perpetrated by Pakistani terror groups.